Colleen Sharkey

Colleen Sharkey earned a degree in English Literature from the University of Cincinnati in her home state of Ohio in the U.S. When she headed west for graduate school, she got the opportunity to learn and write about space science at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Colleen first worked in the press office there and then moved on to write about NASA's missions to Mars. She worked closely with scientists and engineers on multiple projects including the Mars Exploration Rover mission (MER), Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission (MRO) and Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). Before moving to Germany, Colleen worked as the associate director of communications at Occidental College, the California alma mater of U.S. President Barack Obama.

Hans-Hermann Heyer

Photographer

Email: hheyer@eso.org
Tel: +49 3200 6308

Objectives

1. Photography in Garching & Chile
2. Maintenance of the master photo archive
3. Printing exhibition panels

Gonzalo Argandoña

Email: gargando@eso.org
Tel: +56 2 463 3258

Objectives

Coordination and management of EPO activities in Chile

Valeria Foncea

Tania Rabesandratana

Tania graduated from Imperial College London’s MSc. in Science Communication in 2004, after a first degree in biology.
She worked in science communication in the UK, Austria, and Belgium - in particular in exhibitions and events, and joined the ePOD Chile team in 2007 on an assignment from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Gabriela Gajardo

Gabriela is an English and Japanese translator. She graduated from the University of Santiago in 2006 and since then she has worked as legal assistant in the International Trademark Department of an important Law Firm in Chile. In 2007 she also obtained a diploma in Asian Studies at the Instituto de Estudios Avanzados in the University of Santiago. Now she joined ESO as assistant for both the outreach department and the legal service.

Email: ggajardo@eso.org

Objectives

1. Purchasing, travel logistics, leave etc.
2. Misc. admin. Support

Mariana Barrosa

Mariana graduated in International Relations. She coordinated Centro Multimeios de Espinho, a science centre in Portugal. There, in addition to her management tasks, she worked in several science popularisation projects, from writing scripts for planetarium shows to organising scientific events and conferences. In 2004 she obtained a Post-Graduation in Management of Non Profit Organisations. More recently, she has collaborated with several international science communication projects, like the coordination of the production and distribution of the Portuguese version of the book and DVD "Hubble — 15 years of discovery" and the Press Office for Europlanet, the European Network of Planetary Sciences. In 2007, she completed an MSc in Science Communication in the UK.

Noel Caboni

Will Gater

Will is a science writer based on the UK. He has written numerous articles for the UK’s top astronomy magazines including Astronomy Now and BBC Sky at Night magazine (where he currently works as staff writer). He has also worked as a science writer for the ESA/Hubble press office and continues to write press releases and other outreach material for both ESA/Hubble, ESO and IAU. You can see Will's publication list and read his blog on his website here.

Hosam Hassan

Hosam is studying for a Master's degree in Computational science and Engineering at the Technical University of Munich. He has a Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering and is a Sun certified Java programmer.

Ross Idzhar

Ross graduated from the University of Leeds in 2008 with a degree in Management and Computing. After taking a year out to pursue more creative interests, he saw an invaluable opportunity to develop his talents commerically via a graphics internship at the ESO. Outside of work Ross enjoys travelling, photography and tennis.

Teis Johansen

Teis is an engineering student from the Technical University of Denmark in the field of electrical engineering. Teis is currently on the team designing the onboard computer for the next student satellite.

Kaspar K. Nielsen

Kaspar is a software developer and has a MSc in astrophyscis . At the moment he is working on his PhD in mechanical engineering, doing numerical modeling. At the same time he is coding and supporting the FITS Liberator. His main professional interests are coding, especially to multi-CPU systems and physics (mainly how to minimize entropy generation). In his spare time he likes to hang out with friends mostly drinking beer and telling funny stories.

Link to CV.

Sarah Reed

Science Writer Assistant

After graduating from Durham University with a master’s degree in Theoretical Physics, Sarah joined BBC Sky at Night magazine as staff writer, working alongside the legendary British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore. She was later promoted to the role of news editor. Most recently, she worked on the prestigious academic journal Science as an intern in their news department in Cambridge, UK. She’s now joining ESO ePOD as a science communication intern to learn how an international scientific organisation disseminates its research to the public. Aside from science and writing, Sarah’s hobbies include skiing, travelling and reading.

Julia Westner

Julia is studying Cultural Anthropology, Japanese and Psychology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. Currently she is in charge of the Hubble Shop and responsible for all kinds of distribution matters.

Nicola Guttridge

Intern Science Communication

Nicky completed an undergraduate degree in Astrophysics at University College London, swiftly followed by an MSc in Science Communication at Imperial College. She has worked briefly as a freelance journalist, and has written for various science magazines.

She has joined ESO ePOD to strengthen and improve her knowledge of astronomy, and to experience working in public engagement and outreach.

Email: nguttrid@eso.org

Objectives

1. Public Information Officer assistant

Sally Lowenstein

Intern Science Communication

Sally completed a BSc(hons) in genetics before undertaking a Graduate Diploma in Science Communication at the Australian National University. Since completing her studies she has worked in science communication institutions in Australia and the UK including Questacon, Edinburgh International Science Festival and the Scottish Science and Technology Roadshow.

Creating science shows and workshops that highlight how delightful science can be to children has been extremely rewarding. Sally now hopes to transfer these skills into creating effective written science communication as she ventures into the world of astronomy.

Email: slowenst@eso.org

Objectives

1. Public Information Officer assistant

Jorge Rivero Gonzalez

Intern Science Communication

Jorge was born in 1984 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain) and graduated in Physics at the University of La Laguna in 2008. At the moment, he is doing a PhD in astrophysics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. He is mostly interested in the potential that audio-visual media has to bridge the gap between science and the general public.

Email: jrivero@eso.org

Objectives

1. Public Information Officer assistance

Francesco Rossetto

Intern Graphic Design

Francesco was born in 1985 and obtained a Bachelor degree in Communication Studies at the University of Padua and a Master Degree in Industrial Design at the Scuola Italiana di Design (Padua).

During his Master he successfully collaborated with some important Italians and international brands, such as Greenpeace Italia, Vitra, Bemar, De Longhi, Solari, Inglesina, Euroform W., A.G.R., Geox.

Email: frossett@eso.org

Objectives

1. Graphics assistance

Pedro Moura

Intern Graphic Design

Pedro Moura was born in 30.11.1973. Graduted in Communication Design in Faculty of Fine Arts in the University of Porto in 1999. Since then started working as a Graphic Designer throughout several design studios and has spreaded out his expertise to Animation, in teaching and also directing.

Email: pmoura@eso.org

Objectives

1. Graphics assistance

Tristan Merrien

Objectives

1. Assistance with exhibitions
2. Assistance with events
3. Assistance with distribution

Sarah Roberts

Sarah Roberts holds a BSc degree in Astronomy and the A-level subjects to support a journalism career (English and Media). Combining these qualifications with a passion for teaching complex scientific ideas in a simple manner; science communication quickly became the only career she wished to pursue. Unsurprisingly when offered a position working as a Science Communication intern for the prestigious international European Southern Observatory, she quickly snatched the opportunity and is now thoroughly enjoying being a part of the ePOD team.

Email: sroberts@eso.org

Objectives

1. Public Information Officer assistance

João da Silva

João studied 3D design at ESAD Arts and Design School in Porto, Portugal. Since 2003 he has been working as a graphic designer for various publishers and publicists in Portugal, but he is now looking forward to the experience of working abroad, based at ESO’s headquarters in Garching, Germany. When he’s not designing, João also enjoys writing and he is a published author of an award-winning series of children’s books called A Lenda da Cidadela (under the alias João Hoffman).

Email: jdasilva@eso.org

Objectives

1. Graphics assistance

Bárbara Ferreira

Bárbara completed a Ph.D. in theoretical astrophysics at Cambridge University in 2010. While working on accretion discs around black holes, she became interested in communicating science to the general public, which led her to write articles for science outreach magazines within the university. She also interned at the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology in London where she researched and drafted a short briefing on Space Weather aimed at non-expert parliamentarians. Bárbara keeps a Nature Network blog, Dinner Party Science, which she updates on a weekly basis.

Email: barbara.t.ferreira@gmail.com
Blog: http://blogs.nature.com/barbaraferreira/
Personal website: http://flavors.me/barbaraferreira

Objectives

1. Public Information Officer assistance

Eric Hal Schwartz

Eric recently graduated from Boston University’s Master’s degree program in Science and Medical Journalism. A professional writer for over three years, his work has appeared in many publications including the Boston Comment, the Arizona Daily Star, Xconomy, the Forward, and been featured on National Public Radio and online. An inveterate explorer and bibliophile, he looks forward to all the oppurtunities Germany and the ESO offer him.

Simon Casteran

Simon graduated from the Toulouse Journalism School in 2010. During his studies, he worked as an intern for the Public Relations department of the french space agency, the CNES. He also wrote numerous articles for the french astronomy magazine Ciel & Espace and for the science news website Kwantik.fr. As an intern at the ESO, he particularly works on broadening his knowledge of astrophysics as well as improving his German.

Claudia Mignone

Claudia graduated from the University of Bologna and obtained a PhD in Astronomy from the University of Heidelberg in 2009. After a few years spent studying the expansion of the universe, she became more and more interested in the relationship between science and society on our own planet. As an intern at ESO, she's now learning how to communicate astronomy to the public. In her spare time, she enjoys black and white photography, vintage couches and container terminals.

Ivana Horvat

Ivana graduated in astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia. While she was studying she became very interested in science communication and eventually took part in national FameLab competition where she won the Third Prize in 2008. Ivana was also a coordinator of the astronomy section at The First Science Festival in Novi Sad and she will be responsible for the realisation of the FETTU exhibition in her hometown. As a member of the Beautiful Science Network she was engaged in writing the International Declaration on Science Communication in Istanbul. Before coming to ESO she worked as a physics teacher in a primary school, bringing the excitement of science to the children.

Anika Bombik

Anika graduated at the University of Applied Science and Art in Hildesheim (Germany) with a degree in product design. As an intern at the ESO ePOD she is extending her knowledge in graphic design and improving her international language skills. When she is not at work, she enjoys travelling, meeting friends for a coffee and doing shopping.

Thomas Simon

Thomas Simon studies Audiovisual Media at the Stuttgart Media University. His main interests are photography and web-development. As an intern at ESO he is working on web-design and web-application for the ESO-websites.

Kata Vilimi

Kata is a Hungarian publication designer. She's working for Tempus Public Foundation (an umbrella organization of the Hungarian Ministry of Education, dealing with EU financed and Hungarian Govermental financed scholarships). Parallel she´s attending a design school in Budapest.

Karin Ranero

Karin obtained a B.A. in Physics and Psychology, specializing in astrophysics, at the University of Denver in 2003. Between 2003 and 2006, she worked at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) in the Education and Public Outreach Department. In 2006, wanting to increase her knowledge on communication and informal education in the museum setting, she pursued an MSc in Museum Studies at the University of Leicester, which she obtained in 2007 with her thesis: “Astrobiology in the museum: bridging the gap between science and society.” Karin also enjoys travelling, playing the piano and playing pool.

Catherine Moloney

Catherine has Masters degrees in Science Communication from Imperial College London (2008) and also Physics with Space Science and Technology from the University of Leicester (2004). She has been a museum guide at the National Space Centre in the UK, worked on satellite communication projects and also worked with the science communication group at the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Outside of her work at ESO/Hubble, she is working on a documentary on mental health issues in the UK and she also enjoys climbing and snowboarding.

Katarina Sopcic

Katarina is a student of Visual Design at the University of Florence , on final year. Parallel to my studying I have several years’ experience as a part time freelance visual designer and design agency intern in Florence and Serbia. She enjoys photography, drawing and music.

Laura Simurda

Laura is an unpaid associate with the ESO and will be working as a science writer for three months this summer.  She has obtained a Bachelors of Science degree in Astronomy and Bachelors of Arts degrees in Print Journalism and History from the University of Southern California.  In the fall she will begin pursuing a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering and a Master of Arts degree in specialized journalism at USC.

Over the past two years she has conducted astronomical research with Dr. Geraldine Peters at USC, which she hopes to continue in the fall. Last summer she worked as a museum guide and science writing intern at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.

Nuno Marques

Ana Margarida Lopes

Ana left the golden flatland of Alentejo in southern Portugal and headed north to study Physics at Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon. She then moved to the United States of America for about a year to complete her undergraduate thesis at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California. She gained a D.Phil. in Astrophysics from Oxford University and conducted a post-doc at Universität Heidelberg. Ana joined ESA/Hubble as a science journalism intern in May 2007. She spends her time writing news and photo releases, as well as scripts for the Hubblecast.

Francesca Granato

Aitana Vargas

Nadja Wolf

Kristina Boneva

Cornel Swoboda